Berlin Station 3.10, first impressions [spoilers!] #richardarmitage

Continued from here. These posts will contain spoilers. PLEASE do not read them if you are not watching concurrently with the U.S. broadcast but still want a fresh look at them when the show becomes legally available in your region.

Reminder: SPOILERS. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

***

Can we say: they definitely think they’re getting another season? Yes, Estonia is saved (apparently throwing on a light switch was all they needed) and Platov’s plot is foiled. However, there are several unanswered questions relating to issues left open last week — what the relationship between Frost and Platov was, how Daniel’s body got from Komorovo to Berlin, etc. There are also a ton of unresolved plot problems. So Valerie’s friend was apparently not in these episodes for any particular reason. (I hate it when they do that.) The sciency weapon thingie was in the series in order to involve the Chinese and get them to cooperate over Fourteen Eyes, except that we find out nothing from / about China, so that plot strand (and the reference to the Four Policeman) was largely abandoned and it’s not entirely clear why it needed to be in here in the first place — unless to give April independent screen time. We don’t know who was walking past the memorial wall in 3.1 — maybe no one we knew. And then the new problems: What favor is it that Hector did Valerie? Hector somehow survives to the end of this episode despite “suffering from sepsis,” and despite a funeral, Daniel’s death remains unavenged, with an equal number of unenlightened spooks and pregnant glances exchanged at that funeral. Given how much time ignorant armies spent clashing by night in this episode yet again, you’d think they could have cut that down a bit and answered a few more questions.

So if I were betting on who else was being written out in a hypothetical fourth season, it would be Kirsch, not Valerie. Which makes Orser’s enthusiasm and Forbes’ silence over the last few weeks even more puzzling.

Ask me if I care. Again, so often tonight I found myself thinking — wow, if they’d ever given Daniel Miller an equally weighty plotline where he was more than the ball they were batting around in service of some other character’s plotlines, or if they’d ever given him text to speak like some people got this week.

But not just as a fan of Armitage were we mocked this season: we were mocked as spectators who cared about characters whom the writers were obviously less interested in than we were. This was a dumb strategy, because that’s why audiences stick with a show, because they find something in it that draws them back every week. If the writers can’t be at least as serious as I am about their interest in a plot or a character, it’s a stupid investment on my part because I will always be disappointed. This show has never really hit a rhythm regarding a plausible, tense plot — only intermittently and never over an entire season. So it has to be the characters. Spooks also killed off characters in abstruse, cruel ways. But it wasn’t afraid to encourage us to care about them — which is what made us so sad about their deaths. Berlin Station somehow missed that tip.

You don’t care about us, writers? Well, we don’t care about you, either. I’ll be calling Spectrum tomorrow to stop paying for this and see if we can get the month prorated.

***

The series has finally gotten around to fully erasing Armitage beyond his picture in the titles. At this point, they’ve even silenced his voice, and it’s Ashley Judd who says “previously on Berlin Station.”

Who’s starring now?

The episode opens in the middle of Hector having a fever dream.

We also get to see that his bullet hole has been stitched up.

This guy’s involved.

and this guy, and they have a discussion about whether Hector’s dead, and which direction he’s going if so, and there’s a bit of the dream in which Frost appears to be washing Hector off but is really waterboarding him …

but in the end, this is the guy who is watching Hector. I didn’t know his name — it’s “Timur” [Yardovsky — I guess he was the spurned plutocrat at Roman’s restaurant] — and I don’t know exactly how Hector got here (as after all, we did close last week with Platov planning to track Hector with dogs).

This is Timur, who says his men discovered Hector at the edge of his grounds. I don’t get why you’d patch someone up and then kill them, though. At any rate, he offers a chance for Hector to narrate the plot a little more.

Hector offers him access to Krik’s art treasures in order to get him to lower the pistol. Oh, right, and Timur’s the person who planned the hit in the nightclub in 3.6.

Back in “Berlin,” Gilbert Dorn is giving us the penultimate (my, we’re using the word a lot lately) chapter in the Diver story: why Diver was a double agent.

James Cromwell as Gilbert Dorn. I really wish he’d played an ailing Catholic bishop in this show. My joy would have been unconfined.

It’s cut through with images of Steven listening to it in a peaceful park (as it turns out, in “Berlin”). Steven’s interrupted by a phone call from Hector. Steven feigns relief to hear Hector’s voice and reveals to Hector that “Daniel didn’t make it.” Hector seems genuinely upset by this news. Steven thought Hector and Torres “missed exfill,” but Hector interrupts to inform Steven he had made it to the green dacha. When questioned further, he says he saw “bits and pieces,” but feigns inability to speak. Hector says, ominously, “Tell Valerie I’m doing her one last solid, and then she better lose my fucking number. You too.”

After repeating Steven’s canonical hokey sigh, Frost goes back to listening to Dorn, who reveals that the reason Diver became a double agent is that his wife was drunk driving in Moscow (Diver was even more drunk than she) and kills a pedestrian — so Diver agreed to spy for the USSR in order to keep her out of a Soviet prison. (This would be more plausible to me if we hadn’t had season 1, in which Frost was embezzling money to keep Caroline happy and buy her a house in Provence — I mean, is he really that insecure? Doesn’t she owe him one at some point?) Cut to Esther listening to the podcast (at the same time!). Back to Dorn: The dissolution of the Stasi archive “on” November 9, 1989, meant that Diver was at risk of being exposed as a double agent.

Esther’s listening, too. To me there’s something slightly GDR-reminiscent of these all-wood interiors — the look like the inside of the ZK building in Berlin used to look, at least a little — but this is meant to be a BfV office.

Both Esther and Steven are listening as Dorn promises that on the next podcast, “tomorrow,” “all will be revealed.” In case you’re in any doubt about the Steven / Diver identification, the camera shows us the rear angle of Richard Jenkins’ head.

Back in Komorovo, Timor dispatches Hector to the warehouse (the “freeport”) over the protests of his physician.

In Berlin (this is really Berlin — Märkisches Ufer), BB Yates enters Robert’s building and discovers Robert holding Nina hostage. As Robert tries to explain in the adjoining room, he realizes he sounds insane. BB urges him to question Nina “by the book,” but when she returns to the living room, Nina has escaped her bonds. A fight ensues, Nina grabs the sciency weapon thingie (how handy!) and zaps Robert very close to his heart. (This is a bit weird because I think we learned that Kolya was running Nina. So it’s not the Chinese who are trying to get the weapon? In any case it doesn’t matter at all to the plot of the rest of the episode — nor is it anything more than incidental to the plot of the entire season. Whatever.) BB disarms (diszappers?) Nina but Nina escapes; BB drags him into a cab with the help of a friendly cabbie and they hotfoot it to a hospital. (Obviously this cabbie is not an actual Berliner, because every Berliner cabbie I have ever met has the gift of gab and would protest loading a body like this. Hopefully they went to the nearest one instead of driving all over town like they did last season. I’m also wondering how you explain the injury to a doctor. However, the cabbie does pass on the right, which is a huge German traffic no-no, but something you see in Berlin all the time.)

This show doesn’t lay the metaphors on thick or anything.

Meanwhile, Valerie is meeting Kolya in an apartment full of marionettes. (Whatever.) She informs him that April and Sofia et al. are in Tallinn, trying to turn the lights back on, and that “a man on the ground” will stop Rodion & Co. Kolya says that Platov will not relent unless he sees a show of military force. After Valerie objects that NATO will not intervene, he suggests a faked intercepted cable to show to Platov. Valerie calls BB, who’s in a hospital waiting room; they’re going to crash the drone currently flying over Estonia to fake Rodion/Platov out.

Cut to St. Petersburg, where Hector is entering his warehouse. We’re going back to that editing style with back and forth, and again half the scenes are boyz fighting in the twilight. Hector talks his way in with a story about questionable provenance and needing to pacify beancounters.

This is sort of the last interesting point for a while because now we have to have some boys fighting in the twilight. We’re sixteen minutes in and I’m already wondering how they will ever fit the rest of the plot in this episode. Anyway. In the dark, we see Rodion spotting the drone on his computer screen. We also get a report from Mr. Telecommunications at the embassy that contact with the drone has been lost near Tapa.

Valerie promises that they put info on the drone “that should give him a hell of a fright.”

At the warehouse, Hector convinces the guards to move all of the stuff out based on a story he tells about how missing provenance on one item (which Hector hid) will drag the entire lot of stuff into insurance litigation. As the goons begin move everything, Hector removes a lot of money, several passports and a bottle of sparkling wine from his office — along with the drawing he was shouting about, which is worth 3 point something million something. He gets in his car and drives away.

The following scenes all take place in the dark.

Back in Berlin, Esther is meeting with Dorn in “Berlin” at night — she tells him she doesn’t believe Platov killed Daniel, and shows him the picture from 3.1 / 3.2 that Daniel mailed her from Estonia. They get into a bit of a pissing match when he refuses to tell her who Diver is and where she can find him; she offers to protect him. He responses that she can’t protect him from what he’s afraid of and secrets are all he has. She says they are lies and he tells her if it weren’t for him, she’d be wearing a Stasi uniform. She says, “Please — I can’t let this go,” and he says, “well, in that case, I pity you,” and leaves to prepare for company he says he’s expecting. Ouch. ESTHER, dude, you really should have followed him, given a hinting statement like that.

Cut back to the darkness of Tapa. I had to rewatch this because during the original broadcast I got distracted by a recharge of my ongoing game of Candy Crush soda saga. So, in the darkness, Rodion cuts a chip out of the drone he’s downed and reads it on his laptop. Unlike the CIA, he does not have an Apple computer and this probably explains the outcome of the episode. Anyway, Rodion calls Roman in St Petersburg to say that he’s seen footage on the chip of forward troops but Roman is suspicious — his Moscow sources haven’t given him that information. Shortly after that he arrives at the warehouse only to discover that all his precious arty shtuff is gone. I don’t see how this is a favor to Valerie, though.

In Tallinn, we see April and Sofia in the city with three guys with guns.

Back to Tapa. Torres is back at the camp where we saw him 3.3 — he discovers that all the Russian paramilitaries are gone. I’m not sure why he does this — doesn’t the CIA already know that Rodion’s troops have mobilized from 3.9? I guess not, but you’d think they’d know by now, since they have a freakin’ drone flying over Estonia. I mean really.

In Tallinn, April and Sofia observe a truck full of Russians drive into her company’s building, then they sneak in themselves (with their guards).

Torres is stalking through the forest in Tapa, looking for Russian paramilitaries because he knows exactly where they are (he has the nerve to say this). He finds the slaughtered NATO troops from last week and hears men in the woods.

In Tallinn, Sofia announces that she’ll only have 30 seconds after she breaks in to the computer before the Russians are aware of her breach. She wants the soldiers to hold the Russians off for five minutes while she turns on the lights, the wifi and the cell towers. According to her, this will end the Russian power grab. (okay …. I thought there were like, Russians on every corner … but whatever.)

In Tapa, Rodion is playing with his computer some more, and sees that the footage on the chip from the drone has antiquated information on it that indicates it’s false (armor that’s not up to date). His call to Roman gives Torres the opportunity to locate and sneak up on him. Fatefully, Roman says, “As long as Estonia is dark, we can move forward.” At about 29:20, Torres attacks Roman and they fight — in the dark. Sigh.

Torres and Rodion fighting. Seriously. Does filming the whole thing in the dark save them money or something?

Tallinn: as Sofia tries to locate the right cable, CIA and Russians play cat and mouse in the banks of the servers.

April manages to get a few knockout blows in, too. You go, girl.

Tapa: Torres and Rodion are STILL fighting. In the dark.

Sofia’s got a MacBook and this is why we will win.

Tapa: Torres and Rodion are STILL fighting. It is slightly less dark.

Tallinn: the Russians have discovered the breach but Sofia keeps on typing. The computer screen is mightier than the assault weapon and all that.

Not to be a pain, but I didn’t realize they’d also turned the water in Tallinn off.

Tapa: Guess what. Torres and Rodion. Still fighting. Still in the dark.

Memo to EPIX: nothing about this is either dramatic or entertaining. Candy Crush Soda Saga was calling.

Tallinn: the Russian paramilitaries are shooting at our team, and April enters the fray, now shooting people as well as beating them up. Sofia encounters an obstacle and hits a key repeatedly while the computer beeps in refusal. I guess her game of Candy Crush Soda Saga is not going well either, as she says “fuck fuck fuck.” The firefight continues and our soldiers tell Sofia she has to do it now.

Tapa: Do I have to tell you or have you figured it out by now? They are now also groaning in Tarzan voices, if that helps color the scene up a bit. Torres skewers Rodion to a tree (this is only really obvious later, in a different scene) and breaks Rodion’s neck and then collapses himself.

Tallinn: Sofia gets the lights on and we see them go on all over Tallinn.

Wasn’t Spooks 8.2 about keeping the lights on vs the “Tazbeks”?

One big problem in this episode are the changing light levels — like we’re supposed to get the general curve that the sun is about to rise — but the light levels are inconsistent from scene to scene so we have to take it on trust. Anyway, the lights going on lightens the mood (LOL) and this is kind of the climax of the episode — from here on, it’s all falling action, more or less.

Once the lights go on in the building (which miraculously makes it light outside, too!) the Russians pull back. They all drive out of the city in personnel trucks.

Platov is observing all this from Komorovo, where it’s miraculously light out, and he loses it and destroys the stuff on his desk. In Tapa, it’s now also light out and the next wave of NATO troops discover Rodion and Torres (who are apparently a synedoche for all those other folks we saw last week, who we never see this time — saving money?) and as Torres can still weakly mumble “I’m an American,” they call in a medic. So he’ll definitely be in season 4, if there is one, right?

Back to Berlin.

Deportation detention in Berlin also apparently needs Sofia Vesik’s electrical support. Or maybe just a few lightbulbs.

BB Yates shows up in a very sprightly mood to offer the Adeyemis “green cards and visas” to the U.S. (this is confusing — if you have a green card, you don’t need a visa to enter), along with residences near DC and access to a lab so Dr. Adeyemi can get back to work. Yes, they expect him to keep working on this sciency weapon thingie and not do humanitarian research or anything. She also notes that she’s recovered the device and will pay him a fair price for it. In response to Dove’s questions about April ignoring them, she says that they are getting this deal because of April. I guess this is BB making it up to April for her earlier realpolitik? So I guess if there’s a season 4 BB will be CIA director?

Finally a scene where one can clearly see everyone’s face — the first one in like fifteen minutes or something.

On the river, Frost is toasting a “pipeline” deal with a well-dressed woman who speaks accented English (not clear that it’s Russian, though, and her name is Suzanne). She tells him she decided to make the deal with him because people say “Steven Frost is a man you can trust.” She leaves (before the sparkling wine is gone), and he has a swallow of water before he too rises and vomits in a restaurant water feature and is rude to the waiter who expresses concern.

In St Petersburg / Komorovo, Kolya shows up at the dacha to collect Roman — telling him to “pack light,” and that he won’t need his passport or gun. (Duh-dun.)

40 minutes in. In “Berlin,” Steven is relating events at the dacha to Valerie. He tells her he didn’t see Daniel there at all; he was held off by gunfire. When she asks about Hector, he relates the previous phone conversation with her (what was the favor Hector did Valerie? Unclear to me, unless he’s planning to give her some of the money he retrieved.) Valerie asks why it’s taken Steven so long to be in touch, and he tells her it’s because she was right and he is too old to be in the field. They reassure each other that they all did everything they could. Then Valerie asks him to speak at Daniel’s memorial. He agrees. He’s all choked up, but I guess not for the reason Valerie thinks.

(In case you are wondering, we are NOT going to see that plausibly interesting scene hinted at last week, where Esther calls Daniel’s father.)

Robert IS alive. So I guess the weapon isn’t as deadly as we thought.

Next, we see Torres in a military hospital, watching the positive news from Estonia where Sofia is revolutionizing the identity card system. He goes next door with his IV pole to cheer up Robert, who is down in the dumps: his career is over, he’ll be lucky to get his job back, he’s thrown his family away, and “the last woman who liked me is a Russian operative.” (To me there’s a problem here. This could be basic Jewish misery if played right, in which case it would be supposed to be funny — but of course Robert can’t joke about stuff like this.) Torres notes in a quite emotional speech that despite all this, the Estonians are free and another war in Europe has been averted. So although they are damaged, it was worth it, which is what they are always praying for. Torres is definitely just a skosh religious.

Wrapping up the Gilbert Dorn plotline, Steven shows up at Dorn’s place. In case we’ve forgotten, Dorn reminds us that Steven killed Mrs. Miller and now Daniel to save himself, and has forestalled Esther and Daniel’s happiness. Steven takes out his gun to kill Dorn, but is unable to do it. Steven asks Dorn to kill him, but Dorn refuses: “You don’t get off that easy.” He wants the blood to stay on Steven’s hands. When Frost asks Dorn, “what about you, what about your part?” Dorn replies “I gave my life in defense of the United States of America. I am forgiven,” then raises the pistol to the underside of his jaw and shoots himself. Blood ends up on Steven’s face because that seems to happen a lot in this show. (It happened in Spooks 7, too, as I remember).

Cut to Steven standing in front of the star memorial at CIA HQ in Langley, speaking at Daniel’s memorial. All the CIA people are there, plus Esther. Daniel’s actions “saved millions from the jackboot of oppression.” (Seriously?) “Hell, he might’ve even saved NATO itself.” (Wow, Daniel, you will go down in history for this one.) Then Hector, in sunglasses, walks into the gathering. Steven blathers on a bit about the vocation of CIA agents and when he looks up again, Hector is not there. (So who knows if this happened, or it’s just one of Steven’s fantasies, because it’s hard for me to imagine how Hector could get into that setting unnoticed.) At this, Steven falters slightly and turns his body.

Like this. Hagen Bogdanski has done a really good job of making sure we get great views of Richard Jenkins’ neck throughout the season.

Esther makes a flashbulb association with the picture from November 9, 1989. Robert goes up to Steven to see if he’s okay. After his speech ends, Esther goes up to Steven and says, “Thank you for your words. I promise you I will remember them. Always.”

Yes, she still looks great and I do like her, but there wasa time when she seemed to be everywhere on german television and that’s why I laughed so hard, when I researched the Suzanne you mentioned and found out it was her.

It was difficult for me to believe that this season would continue to disappoint me, and to the nth degree. I too, noticed the continuation problems they had with the lighting in Estonia. I don’t get why Valerie would think Frost was an appropriate person to give Daniel’s memorial. They hardly worked together. Steven was out as station manager after Season 1 even though he remained in the show. Valerie or Robert would have been much more suitable. All in all, Valerie comes out as a fool in this episode, at least twice. How did she buy Steven’s lame excuse for what happened at the Dacha? Doesn’t she listen to the podcasts? How could Esther not recognize Frost from the photo? The way Daniel Miller’s character was treated this season, even though there’s nothing to suggest it in the promos season-wide, I wonder if this was another punishment for Richard Armitage leaving a series? First they beat the crap out of him, then they torture and burn him, then they hunt him like an animal, then they kill him in cold blood, dump his body in an alley and end it with giving his killer the opportunity to speak his eulogy. You gotta really be pissed at someone to do that. It would have been so easy for us to see Steven get his retribution and give the audience, and those Armitage fans they seemed to value so much, that last bit of satisfaction. Also, they never really explain how Dorn even knows Daniel and Esther were an item. That ” they could have been happy crap” was nauseating.
And yeah, the medical thingy, if the Russians were running Nina, then where do the Chinese fit in? And BTW, where was Daniel’s father at the memorial and why was the crowd so small. Even that was an insult.
I am so glad this is over. I have such negative feelings towards EPIX and this series.
I think the solid Hector did was get rid of the art to cripple Platov. For what it’s worth, sepsis or no, I think Hector did show up at the memorial.
Shame on these people.

Valerie could have given the memorial. Agree that she seems amazingly naive here. (Maybe the reason for Forbes’ social media frustration is that she wanted to be written out and couldn’t be?). It feels like, if they did do an S4, the lineup would be Frost, Torres, Yates, Lewis, Forbes, and Tander, Kirsch optional. Still too many characters, of course, but I don’t get how this show turned out to be about Frost’s past.

It’s just ridiculous that they’d drag us along all of those episodes with him alive but not seen. That too is cynical — so do they want Armitage’s fans, or not? Or rather, is all they really want our money? Do they think because they almost force us to watch it when he’s not there, we’ll be grateful to see what finally happens?

I assume Dorn deduced Esther’s romantic interest from her level of persistence on the topic. But it was insanely hokey, insofar as “you stopped them from being happy” isn’t really a matter of reproach on the level of two murders.

The suicide scene was also total bullshit. Frost has killed ALL these people and now all of a sudden he has qualms? Why would Dorn kill himself if he had the goods to destroy Frost?

The only thing i can figure out the sciency weapon thingie was that they needed a plot to keep April in play — maybe an independent plotline was part of Palmer’s contract? (I don’t mind — I really like that character.) But it added a dimension to the season that it did not need and it took away time from the central plot (then again, there was quite a bit of that.)

the solid — your explanation is the only one, I just don’t see why it matters. Platov’s invasion doesn’t fail because he doesn’t have the money (although 3.9 implies that it will). It’s because Torres STOPS HUNDREDS OF RUSSIAN PARAMILITARIES BY SLUGGING IT OUT WITH RODION. Don’t make me laugh.

“Do they think because they almost force us to watch it when he’s not there, we’ll be grateful to see what finally happens?” I wouldn’t say we were grateful, but that’s what did happen. If they needed to keep Jenkins in for a season 4, then they should have written a different plot line about Diver. I don’t understand why Dorn’s conduct either.
He expects Steven. He want his last podcast to be aired ( he should) yet he lets him in and then kills himself before the reveal? Same reason as Daniel holds back? Why didn’t he just tell Esther, or send some info to BS? BTW, I watched the end again, and yeah, maybe Hector was a figment of Frost’s imagination and guilt, because he certainly does disappear from the space he was in. I still claim these are the worst spies I’ve ever watched in a serious series. You were distracted by Candy Crush. I started wondering whether I recognized that forest and when would Robin Hood swing down from a tree. I just don’t get how it is that critics have been friendly to this show.

Thank you so much Serv. I can feel you. I’m Soooo dissappointed, distressed, sad, what can I say? I’m glad RA is out from BS. He can start in Mr. Stranger and The Seville Communion. At least novels are much appreciated and anticipated for. It’s RA’s time to shine.

As usual, even with your detailed (and illustrated!) account of the episode – I have no idea of what is going on. The plot of this show from day one has been so confusing it’s just ridiculous. What a stupid show. I confess, in all seriousness, I’m a touch angry with Richard Armitage for putting me through this for 3 years.

let’s see, quick summary — the CIA foils the plot to takeover Estonia; Tores kills Rodion; Hector steals everything in the warehouse; Nina zaps Robert but escapes; Platov is taken away to probable death; the Adeyemis get visas to the US; Dorn kills himself before Steven (Diver) can; Esther finally figures out who killed Daniel at Daniel’s memorial service.

Thank you for posting this. I intended to watch the last 2 episodes yesterday but our daughter came over for dinner & when I found out what happened thru the tweets & after reading yr post decided to not waste my time watching them. I did enjoy Season 1 and 2 quite a bit and clearly don’t like the changes they made this season. I’m not annoyed with RA or any of the actors because it’s their livelihood & work & we are all at choice about how we spend our time & what we watch regardless of our dedication as a fan. This long drawn out season has been very unpleasant for me & I am going back to my picky & binging viewing habits so that I’m not being influenced so much by marketing spoilers & ploys. I really appreciate your thoroughness with the photos & posts. Thanks!

This is a really constant question for me at the moment — I have watched so much horrible TV for Richard Armitage’s sake. I should go back to my previous habits now — at least until his next show premieres.

Well once again Berlin Station fails to deliver. After all the hype they managed to conclude the season not only lacking satisfying retribution for the death of their main character, they couldn’t even give him the memorial he deserved. After stringing viewers along for half of season 3 with no payoff, do they really think we’re falling for their stupid cliffhanger and the obvious opening for them to drag it into season 4? I’ve never felt so f****d over by a series before this one. I had hoped for some closure in this finale but all it did was make me angry at the gaping plot holes, the at-times eye-rolling dialogue between supposedly seasoned CIA agents and the total disregard for continuity. I feel that the talent of RA was not only underused in this series, but was outright neglected. With the attention to detail and research RA invests in every role he takes on, it must have been a source of frustration for him. It’s a crying shame Daniel Miller wasn’t given better character development by the writers. For that matter, none of the characters were made very compelling tbh. We’ll never know for sure but I wonder if RA initiated his exit from the show so he could move on and be free to accept other opportunities. I have to say I’m really happy for his casting in The Stranger. I thought the book was really great and he will be an excellent fit for the protagonist in this series.

Thanks Serv. I might have watched this if Frost got his just desserts; that he not only escapes justice, but reads the eulogy at Daniel’s funeral, is the final insult. The treatment of Daniel Miller certainly seems like punishment for RA’s exit to me. After the way the poor man was beaten etc, the least they could’ve done was simply to have him repatriated back to the States, but they opted for the f*** you approach. Ugh. Can’t wait for The Stranger now and for RA to be treated with the respect he warrants.

I remember learning (I wasn’t a fan then) that Armitage campaigned for a definitive death for Guy of Gisborne — the show was supposed to go into a fourth series but apparently the main actors were not interested, and the costs of production went up due to currency fluctuations — maybe he wanted not only to be written out but to be written out in a way that made it impossible for him to come back. There is that line “pretty easy to fool everybody,” but any resurrection at this point would be more or less at the Bobby Ewing level.

Everyone was signed to three series if I remember correctly but, yeah, don’t blame him. It’s a fun show but the beeb would cancel anyway. (It didn’t have the Dr.Who level interest and Merlin, its successor, did better.

By the way, thank you for saving me 16.99 CDN for Superchannel. I had a bad feeling about this season based on his Twitter activity. Also, this bait-and-switch-and-death technique made me peeved at The Walking Dead writers but seeing it again on BS makes me wonder ‘who the (bleep) taught you that technique!’ Olen Steinhauer not doing season two also had my spidey senses tingling. Something about season 2 felt way off.

I feel you guys who watched this til the end. Thank you so much for posting about BS, let alone each episode! The things we do to follow this man.
I have felt similarly in a different show (stringing along viewers by the PR team bc they knew how much people watched bc of a certain character) and this just gave me flashbacks of the heartache and relief felt after the show ended horribly. I don’t think I’d have any more energy to watch this after what happened to Daniel Miller.

Hope to better projects to Richard Armitage! I am pretty excited we get a bigger chance to see him because of Netflix.

I enjoyed reading your roundup again – I think I’m in the minority, on WordPress at least – in that I actually enjoyed the season. I understand that there were some unnecessary complexity, poor judgement from the writers in regards to coverage of storylines, and they messed about too much in order to get to the endgame.

I always enjoy action-led and spy-led dramas, like Spooks, Homeland and The Blacklist, and Berlin Station is another which I will continue to watch and enjoy. Although I am a fan of Armitage, and the way he was written out was pretty poor, his absence from the show won’t mean that I won’t watch it. Hopefully, season four (if there is one) irons out some of the creases that season three had and it answers some of the burning questions left over from the final episode.

I am ambivalent about a Season 4 and if it happens will see if it looks enticing or appealing at all. I had a thought today about the loose ends. Not having Frost get his comeuppance basically allows Esther & Hector to stay in the game and get screen time getting revenge. That might be interesting to see. I enjoyed the characters & hope the writers and showrunner can improve on this new style if they do get a new season. I just think it’s crappy to leave a big cliffhanger like that if they don’t think they’ll go on. I’m assuming they might have good cause to think there will a 4th season. I loved Spooks and so did my husband but Series 9 didn’t quite work for me either. Thanks for your comments.

Season 4 is setup: German – Russian alliance against USA.
Frost’s brief toast with “Suzanne” Berg (Veronica Ferres, uber popular in Germany) was the tipoff. Theorizing: Berg represents a dark coalition of German industrial interests (think Krupp-esque) who are tired of Americans (alter the David Bowie lead in lyrics) spilling garbage across their front lawn. The Russians (Kolya) are happy to have NATO undo their own rogue “cowboys” so they can hatch a much bigger game with Germany. The ultimate goal is to split NATO, which becomes the MUCH BIGGER plot in Season 4 (speculation). Estonia is peanuts in coach class compared to the Beef Rouladen being baked upstairs with the Kremlin. Gas pipelines, Rocketa and satellites, World class chemicals, Stealth tech — we are way above software code and servers in Tallinn here.
The French aren’t dependable, so the Americans must turn to Britain and… where else? Season 4 is spent showing how tenuous the links are between the USA and Europe, if Germany flips. Merkel bows out, and pro-Russian governments coalesce in Czechia, Hungary, Bulgaria — Belarus is already in the fold. Poland is trapped — AGAIN ! Ukraine splits and Turkey exits NATO to become a “neutral” party like Yugoslavia with the “Unaligned Bloc”. With Crimea, Turkey, and a naval base in Syria, Russia gains the upper hand in the Eastern Med, which is all they need because they have already locked up Egypt and the Suez Canel for completing the trade web with China. Russia doesn’t need Gibraltar. After Season 4, USA and UK are both BREXIT-ED. Season 4 becomes the most popular TV show OUTSIDE USA.

A year later…Thanks for helping me through this Covid19 timespan. I got sucked into binging the almost the entire series in a couple of days. I gave in to find out answers after 3.5. Crazily it’s the first show or book that was missing summaries of part of a season. Wikipedia has no summaries on season 3. Anyway, I found your blog and I could not put it down, I loved the emotion you wrote with and all the sidebars you cane up with about production and filming and… it was like you were a great tour host. Although I definitely am currently disappointed in how things turned out (I don’t know if I will watch 3.6-3.10). I am very happy to have found your blog to help me through this time.